1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to a laminate structure generator, and a stacking method and apparatus for a secondary cell including the same and, more particularly, to a laminate structure generator capable of reducing manufacturing time of a secondary cell, and a stacking method and apparatus for a secondary cell including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a chemical cell is composed of two electrodes, that is, a cathode and an anode, and an electrolyte, and may generate electrical energy based on materials constituting the electrodes and the electrolyte. Chemical cells are classified into a primary cell which is a disposable cell used only for charging once due to very low charging reaction, and a secondary cell which is a rechargeable cell repeatedly used through recharging reaction.
Secondary cells are used in a wide range of industrial applications. For example, secondary cells are used as an energy source for advanced electronics such as wireless mobile devices. Further, secondary cells have attracted attention as an energy source for hybrid electrical vehicles that have been developed to solve air pollution caused by existing gasoline and diesel engine vehicles.
Secondary cells may have a variety of shapes, such as a cylindrical shape, a polygonal shape, a pouch shape, and the like, according to the shape of a casing for an electrode assembly.
Typically, a cylindrical secondary cell uses a cylindrical aluminum casing and a polygonal secondary cell uses a polygonal aluminum casing. Further, a pouch-shaped secondary cell uses a pack-shaped pouch formed of an aluminum laminate thin film and is widely used in the art due its merits such as relatively light weight and excellent stability.
The pouch type secondary cell includes an electrode stack which is composed of a cathode, an anode and a separator interposed between the cathode and the anode, a pouch composed of an aluminum laminate film and sealing the stack received therein, and a plate-shaped electrode tap connected at one end thereof to the stack and exposed at the other end thereof to the outside to guide current to the outside.
It should be noted that the above description is provided for understanding of the background art and is not a description of a well-known technique in the art.
Conventionally, a stack electrode assembly is formed using a stacking apparatus by a stacking process in which a cathode, an anode, and a separator are sequentially stacked such that the separator is interposed between the cathode and the anode. However, since such a stacking process is very complicated, the stacking apparatus also has a very complicated configuration, thereby making it difficult to conduct maintenance of the apparatus and increasing manufacturing costs of the secondary cell.
Therefore, there is a need to solve such problems.